Gain the secret knowledge, become a DTV transition guru

You might think you know everything there is to know about the digital TV …

If you're an Ars Technica reader, you probably think you have this DTV transition thing down. How complicated could it be? All stations are shutting down their analog over-the-air (OTA) broadcasts on June 12, the government is handing out $40 coupons for converter boxes, and old analog TVs will soon display every OTA channel in even higher quality than before.

Except that it's quite a bit more complicated than that. For instance, signal quality will decrease for some; analog OTA stations will continue to broadcast after the transition; and June 12 is not actually the national switchover date. Show of hands: how many people knew that the entire state of Hawaii made the switch back in January?

To make sure you've got the skinny on the DTV transition as it develops, take a look at our guide, get the complete picture, and be ready to help those you know when problems arise. Believe it or not, failing to stick batteries into the converter box remote control was one of the biggest problems during trials. So when Aunt Gertrude comes calling with DTV transition problems, don't forget to start with the simplest solutions.

Stuff you know

Most Ars readers no doubt have a good grasp of the basics. The mandated switchover date has been moved from February 17 to June 12. The government is giving away $40 coupons to pay for converter boxes—up to two per household. And when it comes to options for dealing with the transition, citizens can buy a new digital TV, switch to cable or satellite, or pick up a digital-to-analog converter box. Yes, this last option means using a new remote control to tune channels, but at least one doesn't need a new TV.

Setup of the converter boxes is generally straightforward. Most feature a coaxial antenna input and both a coaxial TV output and a red/yellow/white set of A/V plugs. For those still using VCRs, the box's output must be routed through the VCR (since it can't tune digital signals) and then into the television. All channels must be tuned on the converter box, not the VCR or the television. The government offers install guides in a host of languages.

Cable and satellite are not affected by the transition.

With the basics out of the way, let's delve a bit deeper, starting with the issue of when the transition actually takes place.

So when is the DTV transition actually taking place?

Glad you asked! The mandated national switchover date was originally February 17, 2009, but Congress extended it until June 12, 2009. That's only a final date, however; TV stations can apply to go off the air earlier, and 42 percent have already done so.

Why would they want to? Running a transmitter is expensive; running two is doubly expensive. The power bill alone for an analog transmitter can run tens of thousands of dollars over the course of the delay, so stations that didn't budget for it may want to stop broadcasting in analog as soon as possible.

But to do so, they need permission from the FCC. 368 recently were given the green light to turn off service before June 12, but another 123 were told that "their early termination poses a significant risk of substantial public harm." (Some were later approved.)

Every market is required to have one station still broadcasting DTV transition information in analog format for 60 days after February 17, as well as "enhanced nightlight" service such as local news and public affairs programming. Even after stations stop broadcasting in analog, they can offer a more limited "nightlight" service that shows only a message indicating that the DTV transition has taken place.

June 12, then, is only the final day on which full-power TV stations can transmit an analog signal—in 49 states, anyway. A little-known provision of the switchover actually had the entire state of Hawaii do its own, separate switch on January 15, 2009. The switchover happened at noon and went smoothly, according to Broadcasting & Cable.

Despite all the outreach, some Hawaiians had not gotten the message. "We had a handful of calls where people said, 'Hey, how come nobody told me about this?'" said Hawaii Association of Broadcasters president Chris Leonard.

Even with its early switchover, though, Hawaii was not the first to drop analog TV. That honor went to the oceanfront town of Wilmington, North Carolina, which switched in September 2008. Wilmington was used as a test bed to see what sorts of problems would affect the broader transition, and though it went well, it turned up plenty of consumer confusion.

So I plug this newfangled box in and it works, right?

One of the things that the Wilmington transition showed was that the problems that might arise during the national transition might not be the expected ones. When Ars checked in with Wilmington officials after the switch, Andrea Good told us that more than 200 people had called the local helpline. A number of those people actually had the converter box, too; they just assumed that plugging the thing into the wall was all it took to make it work.

Good noted that some people had problems with the actual box-to-TV installation, which was to be expected. But another thing she noted was that people also failed to use the converter box's "autoscan" feature which programs the box with local channels. Hooking it up correctly without scanning for channels produced the same result as not hooking it up at all: a blank screen.

Even if the setup was done correctly, the box still uses a remote control to control channel changes, and that remote runs on batteries. Kipling Godwin Associates contracted with the Federal Communications Commission to troubleshoot converter box problems for Wilmington residents, and Kip Godwin told us that his company fielded about 250 calls. The number two problem? No batteries in the remote.

The top problem he saw was with the TV set. Even if residents have the converter box plugged in, have scanned for channels, and have batteries in their remotes, the TV needs to be set to the channel that the box is transmitting its analog output on (usually channel 3 or 4).

That's a wide array of possible points of failure, especially for older, less technical TV watchers. Also a source of confusion: the fact that hooking up a converter box in no way turns older analog sets into "HDTVs."

I can't figure it out.

While the Ars audience can probably figure out how to hook up a converter box, friends and relatives might have more trouble. If that's the case, they may be in luck, since they know you!

But if you aren't around, they might have a free backup option. The FCC has contracted with companies across the country to provide free installation services in communities likely to need them the most. Those who qualify will receive a free install for one or two TV sets, an antenna adjustment, and a converter box channel scan.

30 Reader Comments

The most common scenario that falls under these special rules is living in a state-licensed nursing home or long-term care facility.

Are there actually LTC facilities that don't get cable? I really find that hard to believe - of all the services to provide elders/shut-ins, I would think basic cable would be right up there with heat and running water. Seriously.

Don't forget to rescan channels after the conversion - some stations are moving their digital stations around after the conversion date. Some are going back to the channel their analog signal is currently on (DTV RF on 12, going to 13 after their analog signal on 13 gets turned off on 6/12), or some are just moving to improve signal quality (DTV RF on 2, going to a higher number channel because channel 2 requires a 108" antenna and reception is generally awful). See rabbitears for the list of the channels before and after 6/12 (or whenever the channel switches).

I can't believe that the whole transition is this complicated! So many rules and regulations for regular people just to watch TV. The FCC should have done the transition one state at a time, slowly moving across the country over the course of a whole year. It could have been timed so that before any large populations were transitioned, the FCC would have learned all of the expected problems and fixed any easy ones.

This article is still not very clear about the major problem of the changing frequencies. One key point is when it is going to happen. Even in cases, where stations have stopped analog broadcasts, I don't think they have switched frequencies yet. Certainly, the ones in my area have not. Presumably, everyone is going to switch at once on June 12.

A second point is the question of UHF and VHF. Apparently the low VHF is essentially unusable for digital. In my area, two out of the three analog VHF stations will wind up using a new UHF frequency that is different from the UHF frequency that they have been using for DTV. The third will move its digital signal to the high VHF frequency that it has been using for analog. This case appears to be another one where the FCC could have simplified life by doing away with VHF entirely. As it is, consumers may want to be more concerned with the UHF capabilities of the antenna.

The third issue is the question of how well the autoscan will work. Presumably, with most of the converter boxes, all that is happening is that the converter box scans the frequency range and finds where it can detect signals. Then the user just has to figure out which ones are being used for their favorite channels. But, for example, Microsoft Media Center, commonly fails to find channels with strong signals. The reason appears to be that it works with a guide that specifies program information that it expects to find as metadata in the transmitted signal. When the data does not match, it decides that no signal is available from the station. Microsoft has allowed this problem to fester for years. Presumably, the converter boxes are using a less fragile approach. But, I would not be surprised if guide based digital video recorders tend to be subject to the same problem. For a while, there are likely to be many mistakes in guide data and in the signal metadata broadcast by the stations.

The FCC lists the switchover date for stations in your area. You just have to look it up.

None have mine have switched over yet although I'm still find using their existing digital broadcasts. Just shut the legacy analog off already.

Some stations are moving back to VHF in my area which is a shame since I will no longer be watching them. However PBS stays where it is and that's my only must have station. For everything else, there's Hulu.

cable that convert dtv to ntsc must also convey the dtv freebut they do not have to do it in 8vsb [over the air modulation]they usually do it in Qam be sure your new digital TV demods both if you are using cable.

a fine mess, indeed. Some of my OTA stations come in on the ocnverter; some come in and drop out (blockies and delays); some don't come in at all and don't show up on scans. It's going to be fun while I figure out about putting up a new antenna after they get through with all this mess.

When Circuit City was in the last stages of "sell everything including the kitchen sink" mode, I bought two converter boxes with my two coupons (actually debit-type cards). Now, since the boxes they were selling (APEX) were only $30, they should only have given me credit for $60.

But afterwards (I was buying something else as well), I found that they had actually taken $20 off the other item I was buying ($10 from each converter box coupon).

Of course, there was nobody to go back to point this out to. So the government paid for $20 of my TV stand. Which means that you, dear reader, did. So, thank you.

We have several televisions which run on batteries and are going to be a total loss. They could still be used with a plug-in converter box, but that defeats their whole point, portability.

I bought a flat antenna for the built-in ATSC tuner in my TV and it works really well. I get every station here in Seattle except for channel 13. It sounds like some other people have lost that channel as well so I hope they move their transmitter or up the signal strength on the transition date.

I've noticed an oddity as far as the transition might affect actual cable tv. It's my understanding that the local cable provider (in my case, Comcast) gets the signal for the local stations via their OTA signals. Before the local stations in my area started converting to digital, their pictures were all properly formatted on my older SD Wega. Shows that were letterboxed displayed letterboxed. Everything looked fine.

Now, as the locals are transitioning to digital, the pictures Comcast is feeding me have gone all to hell. All letterboxing is gone. The local PBS station is especially fouled-up, with titles, subtitles, speaker's names, and other assorted graphics all falling-off the edges of the picture, making for an illegible mess. Obvious two-shots are now one-and-a-half-shots.

Occasionally, one station (the NBC affiliate) actually does come across letterboxed. When it does, though, the picture often exhibits obvious scan lines. It's crazy.

A second point is the question of UHF and VHF. Apparently the low VHF is essentially unusable for digital. In my area, two out of the three analog VHF stations will wind up using a new UHF frequency that is different from the UHF frequency that they have been using for DTV. The third will move its digital signal to the high VHF frequency that it has been using for analog. This case appears to be another one where the FCC could have simplified life by doing away with VHF entirely. As it is, consumers may want to be more concerned with the UHF capabilities of the antenna.

Maybe not even all of VHF, just the VHF lower band (channels 2-6). Granted you would have had a lot of squeezing in the 7-13 group (if you occupy second-adjacent slots thats 4 usable channels), and the others would be relegated to UHF. But that doesn't seem like such a band situation. Why any DTV broadcast station would want to occupy RF channels 2 or 3 is beyond me. I wonder if the FCC will allow them to relocate (or boost transmission power) post 6/12 once they figure out that their OTA viewership tanks.

Wow, I'd be pissed if I had an ancient television and all my channels moved from VHF to UHF. Anyone else remember having to "dial" a channel on UHF? And then there was second dial which made minute adjustments to the first dial? Fun times.

"provide free installation services in communities likely to need them the most"

What does that mean? Stupid communities? Is there a list?

"Nielsen found that it was households under 35 years of age that were least prepared for the switch"

That's because this age group thinks that blogs, twitter, sms, facebook, whatever, substitute for real news. They don't know where Iraq is either (apologies to actual soldiers in this age group - you obviously know).

I think the number of calls in wilmington NC was on the low side of what was actually recieved. All of the tv stations were taking calls and even the fire department was taking calls and sending people out to help seniors setup their converter box.

My station has done a DTV phone bank every few weeks for the last several months leading up to the transition. The last one we did was about 2 weeks ago and we still took in almost 400 calls in 2 and a half hours. While previous phone banks had the majority of calls asking us about expired coupons or needing the number or website to get the coupons, now probably 2/3rds of the calls we took were about antenna issues. We had a large number of callers from the outskirts of the market trying to pull in the tv signal using rabbit ears or amplified rabbit ears. Even worse was about half of those callers were from inside mobile homes. This older mobile homes have alot of metal in the structure making reception even worse and with only rabbit ears making it impossible. They might have been watching on analog before but I can guarantee the signal in analog wasn't very pristine either.

Outlying areas of the various markets are going to have to invest in better antennas and most likely need outdoor antennas if they want to receive a signal. My station is fortunate that we aren't moving channels after the transition and we've been at full power for several years now. For other stations here though that are switching channels I can only imagine the trouble they will have.

Let's see...hook the cable to the box, hook the box to the tv, set the tv to the proper channel, put batteries in the remote, and have the converter scan for channels...this is the exact same steps that I had to go through, years ago, with my vcr, on either broadcast or cable, to have the vcr do the tuning and record the channel it was on (I still have those tapes of Airwolf and Miami Vice). Millions of people figured out how to do this, and if they could not, they got their kids, friends, or friend's kids to do it for them. No one called the FCC because they could not get this to work...

Personally, I think if a person cannot do this, and cannot find someone to do it for them, then this should happen:

A-They call in to a helpdesk, who instructs them to put the converter back in the box, with a note saying "I am too stupid to own a TV" and return it to the FCC.

B-The FCC, upon receipt of the tuner/converter will send a portable FM radio ( with hand-crank so batteries are not needed) to that household so that they can receive public information.

@Rhywun:Actually, with a converter box hooked up, you do the actual channel changing through the converter and leave the TV always set to 3 (or 4, if you choose). So, if you have an ancient TV with 2 physical dials, you wouldn't need to mess with it once you've got the box set up. It would actually make things a great deal less annoying!

It shouldn't be called a "switch over"; it's a "switch off". "Switch over" or just "switch" implies that A will turn off and B (or "D" in this case) will turn on. The thing is the digital is already on, and has been for months (and years). The only thing that's switching is analog to off.

Minor nitpick, but many of the people who recently asked me questions were under the impression that digital wasn't on yet, and that was why they didn't go converter box yet. They're waiting for the "switch over" before they set it up, when they could set it up today and have weeks to get it working correctly, and it's so much easier to help someone who doesn't have to get it working in 5 minutes to see their favorite show. If people knew it wasn't a true "switch over", maybe more people would try it "early", resulting in less headaches on 6/12.

In my area (SF bay area), most analog and digital broadcasting antennas are one the same tower. With the analog ones in the prime places (nearer the top), with the digital in the left overs (lower down). After (as in weeks or months) the analog is switched off, the old antennas will be removed and replaced with the digital ones moved to the prime places. So for us, people who couldn't get some OTA digital channels on 6/12 might get them after the physical moving (and the associated re-channeling and increase in broadcast power) of the broadcast antennas. I wouldn't be surprised some other areas are the same. (Though some might do the physical stuff before the switch off, like Hawaii and the reason it had to the the switch off early.)

In my area (SF bay area), most analog and digital broadcasting antennas are one the same tower. With the analog ones in the prime places (nearer the top), with the digital in the left overs (lower down). After (as in weeks or months) the analog is switched off, the old antennas will be removed and replaced with the digital ones moved to the prime places. So for us, people who couldn't get some OTA digital channels on 6/12 might get them after the physical moving (and the associated re-channeling and increase in broadcast power) of the broadcast antennas. I wouldn't be surprised some other areas are the same. (Though some might do the physical stuff before the switch off, like Hawaii and the reason it had to the the switch off early.)

This is actually common in alot of areas, where the DTV antenna was added to an existing analog transmission tower. As such most of these antennas are optimized to prevent interference with the analog antennas and tend to be less then optimal for coverage areas. However with stations struggling for ad revenue right now, not too many are going to be swapping them out any time soon as a new antenna typically runs in the $300k-$500k range, even more if you end up having to replace the transmission line. However a good optimized antenna mounted in the spot for the old analog spot, will typically fill in alot more of the valley areas and can cover up too 10-12% more area depending on how the FCC allows you to maximize for the region. We had plans to do that with ours, but that is on hold for now.

Autoscan doesn't work if you live near two metropolitan areas. Point your antenna to area 1, autoscan, now you can only receive stations from that area. Point the antenna to area 2, autoscan and now you can only receive those stations.

I can't believe after 50 years of television, we haven't come up with a technology that allows improved reception (not just improved picture). Boy we are dumb!

Actually there is something, and it was left out of the article:

ATSC Mobile TV

It uses MPEG 4, and can be received much farther away than ATSC, and also works in moving vehicles. A large number of stations are going to broadcast signals using this standard. It is meant for cell phones with built in TV receivers, but it ought to work for your house too, if only you can find a tuner! (You can't for now).

Well given the number of phone banks we've done, we've taken in roughly 8k worth of calls over the last few months. With that we've picked up viewers in areas that are really on the edge or outside of the market, that had never watched us in analog. What we've found though is most of these viewers have a decent antenna mounted outside. I think in the short term we'll lose some viewers until they buy better antennas, at which point we'll gain them back. With the states unemployment right now running at 11.5% we've had a number of callers asking about setting it up so they can turn off cable to save a few dollars. I don't expect those viewers to stay around long term once the economy picks back up, but in the short term it's definately gaining ground.

What I think alot of the studies never accounted for was just how bad of a signal people were willing to watch via analog. If your 40 miles away, watching it with rabbit ears in your mobile home, I can only imagine how bad that picture was. Trying to get the people to understand that the borderline setup they had for analog won't cut it though is the hardest part, especially when best buy and radioshack seem so happy to sell them some cheap amplified set of rabbit ears.

In the end, I'd say within a years time we'll have about the same viewers we had before the cutoff, they'll just be arranged in the market differently. The stations that are going to be hating life though are the ones switching back to VHF. I don't envy them.

It certainly is not a "switch off". As mentioned, analog does continue for years. Furthermore, yes in some cases, A is off and B is on. "Transition" is the best word.

I know "switch off" implies that no analog after, but IMO it's still a better term than "transition". "Transition on 6/12" has the same problem as "switch over": people think it happens only on that one day. Plus the transition has been going on for years now, and 6/12 just is the "final phase" of it.

Maybe "end of transition", but that has the same problems as "switch off" or "final phase".

As computer support at work, I know wording is very important to convey the correct info, and the best words differ depending on the tech level of the person being helped. For most ars readers, especially after reading this article, "switch over", "transition", etc are fine, but for the people who don't know, these terms imply things that make helping them and educating them much harder, and why many aren't switching already.

edit: come to think about it "switch off" has a negative connotation that might not be helpful. But "switch over" has caused me as much communication speed bumps as "computer" vs "monitor"; some people think the monitor is "the computer" if a keyboard is near it.